42 CORVIILE. 



brown or blackish, each feather with a large and lengthened drop 

 of white occupying the greater portion of it, and causing the lower 

 plumage to look almost white ; wings glossy black ; the lesser 

 coverts with large white spots, the median with triangular white 

 marks, the greater and primary-coverts with the primaries slightly 

 tipped with white ; the secondaries and tertiaries with oval white 

 drops near the tip ; tail black, broadly tipped white on the outer 

 feathers, less so on the centrals ; under tail-coverts pure white. 



Fig. 16. Head of N. multipunctata. 



The young have the head and hind neck pale brown ; the head 

 becomes dark almost as soon as the nestling is fully fledged. 



Bill horny brown ; legs black (Jerdon). 



Length about 15 ; tail 6*5 ; wing 8 ; tarsus 1*6 ; bill from gape 

 1-9. 



Distribution. Kashmir and the Himalayas to Kumaon. Stoliczka 

 found this species tolerably common in the pine- and cedar-forests 

 near Kistwar and Budrawar. Biddulph remarks that it is common 

 at all times in Gilgit above 8000 feet, and there are specimens 

 in the British Museum from various localities from Murree to 

 Kumaon. 



Genus GRACULUS, Koch, 1816. 



The Chough, the sole representative of the genus Graculus, 

 resembles the true Crows in shape and colour, but differs from all 

 of them in having the bill and feet brilliantly coloured. It inhabits 

 Europe, Northern Africa, and a considerable portion of Asia. 



The Chough is found principally in mountainous districts, and 

 delights in cliffs, in holes of which it usually breeds ; but in Tibet 

 it also affects buildings for the purpose of nesting. The Chough is 

 more or less gregarious, and it feeds on the ground after the 

 manner of the Eook, and upon much the same substances. 



In Graculus the bill is very slender and curved and as long as 

 the head, or even longer; the naral plumes are very short and 

 dense, and the lower mandible is feathered to the same extent as 

 the upper. This bird differs markedly from the true Crows in 

 possessing a smooth tarsus, but it differs in no other important 

 particular. 



